Eddie X.
Yelp
Psychological warfare: The battle of the pipe. Eddie vs. the room 535 bathroom. An extremely random experience lands this location a 1, even though it could've easily been a 2. However, when a night ranks in the bottom 2% of all hotel nights (non-Airbnb/non-hostel) stayed, it really does deserve a 1.
TLDR One of those noises that eludes fixing, comes back whenever it's out of your mind.
First, "mistakes were made". I was deciding between a downtown Hilton and this one. I figured I wouldn't see anything (super late check in, going to New Mexico first thing in the morning), so picked the one with less central location and probably less noise.
Hey, everything went perfectly at the airport, so great start to a great trip, no?! I even checked in online and chose a room (first time trying HHonors). It originally gave me something on the 2nd floor but I chose a corner room on the 5th, thinking it would be isolated and quieter. NOPE. Should've taken the first room.
About half an hour to an hour after getting in, I realized I forgot a toothbrush and dialed the front desk for one. Apparently the door is so far away from the beds that I didn't hear the guy knock with the A/C on, but the desk rang and I got it. So far pretty good.
Then, I started hearing an epic high pitched squealing noise coming from some pipe. It went on, and off, and on, and off, usually on for about 5-10 seconds at a time before turning off for a minute or two. Unfortunately, this is the point where the psychological battle comes in: An unknown, very distracting noise, coming at random times, is the worst. Because then you mentally prepare yourself for it and it's still a surprise, and you're constantly in suspense. I take a few videos of it, certify that it's coming from the roof in the bathroom, and call the front desk at 1:30AM. 15 minutes later and many more videos, nothing. I don't know if calling again is rude or if they really did forget. Either way, I want to sleep ASAP and not have to mentally ask if someone is coming or not.
I call again at 1:45, front desk says the guy should've been there already, nope, he will send him now. 1:52, I call again, someone shows up in 1 minute. Ok, what is this?
He walks into the bathroom, looks around for maybe a grand total of 10 seconds, adjusts something inside the toilet, flushes it, and says it's gone. The noise is in fact gone for now, but could easily come back in the next minute. I show him the video and the noise, and he says it's definitely the toilet itself. I'm pretty skeptical as the sound was coming from the roof and very different from the typical water, but maybe it's related. Hey, communication is sometimes hard at 2AM. I'm sure we all wanted to just get back to sleep.
The sound isn't coming back for now (it could be anywhere between 2 and 200 seconds between bursts) so I just tell him thanks and he goes back down. I'm fairly convinced that it was a pipe up there still, but probably if it was, there was nothing he can do if it's inside the building, and the toilet may exacerbate the sound by draining more water, but this is one of those sounds that will go away as soon you try to chase it . About 10-15 minutes after he leaves, the sound comes back. It's more intermittent, but still very annoying.
Declare defeat. I crank up the A/C, set it to fan HIGH, and hope it covers up the noise, I sleep for about 30-40 minutes before getting woken up again. Somewhere around 4:30AM, I decide to go all out, earplug it up, move myself directly next to the A/C so as much noise as possible drowns out any pipe. This is the principle of when you're tired enough, you can sleep through any noise. How else are there so many Facebook sleeping in class pictures of everyone? Sometime probably before 5AM, that's what happened. When I wake up exhausted at 10:45, the same sound is still there. Never choose 535. Could have ended very different, but fate intervened. Luckily everything else went much more smoothly.